Schindler's List (1993)

I think this choice of movie was a very nice one to close this whole module.

I was honestly afraid to watch this movie as it was something to do with the holocaust.

I for one do not enjoy shows that depicts human cruelty.

but I knew in a way that it will be somewhat a happy ending cause of the list!

So here are some things that caught my attention:

It amazed me that Schindler was so brave enough to stand up for the minority

and protect them although he was in a way with the Nazis.

And more so that he was a businessman - why should he care about the Jews welfare?

We always have this stereotype that businessman are a bunch of selfish people who only cares for themselves.

But he was not - he showed compassion for them

and went to the extent of saving them!

I am impressed of how smart the Jews people were!

They can think really fast on the spot to avoid getting killed!!

Even small children were able to catch that skill!

It impressed me a lot because they are in high stress situations

which according to research shows that it does impair one's performance and cognitive processes.

but their cognition was definitely not impaired at all - but it became more instinctive and sharp!

I was really brought to tears at the end of the movie.

It really touches my heart that he wanted to save more and wished that he could have!

He was willing to give up all of his possession to save the Jews!

But honestly, he already did his very best to save a whole lot of them!!

He went bankrupt in the midst of saving them!!

In my opinion, anyone who would give up their entire richness to save their "enemy"

is a rare kind and should be remembered throughout history for their deed!

Finally, would be somewhere at the end scene where Schindler gave a choice to the remaining Nazi soldiers to kill all the Jews that was in the factory or to just walked away and go back home like real man.

This scene we could really see Milgram's obedience experiment.

Once the Germans had lost and Hitler was dead, there was really no point in carrying out their duties

anymore as there is no more higher power to command them.

Here is an interesting fact on Milgram's obedience experiment:

It was somehow able to be conducted in the 21st century and here are the results:

but i'm sure you won't be surprised to see it!!

For those of you who have not watch this on Discovery - You can watch it at the link!

http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/how-evil-are-you-videos

Gandhi (1982)

To start off, I was really not looking forward to watching a true historical events movie.
I've never been a big fan of it as I found it to be terribly a bore.
So this movie in a way had that boring element
but surprisingly, it was not that boring that I had to fast forward any of the scenes.
It was pretty bearable.

Now we'll look at some of my thoughts on this movie.

1. It got me quite interested in his life story!
Before this, I just know about Gandhi on a very surface level.
and like I said earlier - I'm not exactly into history so I did not bother to do more research on him.

But after watching this movie, it intrigued me to want to know more in depth about his journey
I want to discover, what was it that he saw that made him
so compassionate to fight for India's independence,
Why would he be so willing to be thrown in and out of prison so many times?
How was he able to tolerate all of this nonsense?

But what really got me thinking was -
How did he felt when India got her independence but only to end up in another war?
Did he felt that all his effort was for nothing and
that the people will never be able to change their violence ways?

It somewhat broke my heart when that scene was playing.
They have finally won like the biggest victory ever but
because of one issue they forgot about it and let their emotions run wild.

It hurt me when Gandhi said that "the only reason they stop is just to save the life of an old man."
That shows the brokenness felt by him - the people he once taught to about non-violence failed to truly ingrain that concept in their mind!

2. A modest yet very much respected person.
He was definitely someone to admire!
He gave up his luxury and walk down the footsteps of his people.
Everyone he encountered boasted about his works
but he subtly turn them down and even deny some of them.

He did not take pride in his doings because he does it out of true and pure intentions
not for the fame or popularity.
He just wanted to fight the injustice that was done upon his homeland!
For that simple resolution - he stooped down low and humbled.

Does not fight back with violence but through the means of peace.
It really amazes me how his action of fasting can be so influential to all the people in India.
How this one act can cause many to change their ways and follow his path.

I mean - I try to think about it in current times,
if someone was out there fasting until near death for a good cause of this country,
would the many people here even bother about it?
I for one would be honest and say I would most probably not!
So it really got me intrigued as to what kind of person was Gandhi that he was so influential?

There were other people who was also with him - fighting for the same thing,
but he stood out above the rest and managed to gain so many support from the people
despite how uninterested they were in his first speech as we saw so many people walked out of him
until the end only did people started paying attention.

Conclusion
I hated the ending!
It was just too cruel!!
Killed by his own kind - after all the things he did for India
He just got assassinated just like that!

Why was the killer not able to think far of the consequences of his action?
Did he really think that killing Gandhi would bring any benefit to anyone?
It just saddens me that this was the way the real Gandhi died.

In my opinion, this is quite a nice movie to watch to get an outline of the main events
that happened in Gandhi's life. It will provoke some thoughts in you when watching it
especially if you have little idea as to the history of the events (like me...)

Now that I have watched it - it really helped me to understand why he was
so greatly admired and looked up upon through generations.
He is no longer just a man who saved India in a peaceful way in my mind,
he has become more than that to me - he has helped me to understand what it means
to be a servant leader and to hold on to your virtue even in the toughest of times!
That will truly earn respect from people all around!

Generations to come will scarce believe that such 

a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.

Albert Einstein (Gandhi, 1982)

Departures (2008)

To start off, this movie was really unique as it was able to include some essence of humor despite the main backbone of the story is on deaths of loved ones.

I personally enjoyed watching this movie as it has added more knowledge
for me about the Japanese funeral culture/ritual.

I find that the art of beautifying the dead a very fine and
delicate piece of art which pays a lot of attention to details.
It's really amazing to see how fearless he was when handling and cleaning the corpse.
I really do respect those people who are in this line of career.

Now looking at the process of grieving in this movie,
It's interesting to see the different emotional response that was displayed by different families.

Some were really sad and down about it

Some had a mixture of sadness and happiness

In any case, there is a grieving process that one will go through.
And in my opinion, these rituals that are done before burying the deceased allows some sort of reflection time for the family members to come to terms that their loved ones has gone away.
It also in a way assist the individual to "let go" if they participated in preparing the deceased to be buried.

From this movie, I also realized that people had a harder time accepting the fact that their loved one has passed away if the deceased is of a young age compared to those of an old age.
I guess that would be a normal reaction because there is so much left that the young one can do but life was cut short for him/her and this is really upsetting especially to the parents because in a way it's like their future has been "destroyed" as there won't be anything much to look forward to when they grow old.

Whereas for those that died of an old age, it is something that people can be happy about as he/she has lived a long life and has possibly accomplished his/her goals in life and seen all the things he/she wants to.
It's happy to see them go and no longer having to suffer all the pain and aches in their body.
Guess that is what makes it easier to let go because of this other side of the coin to look at.

Conclusion
It is a really nice movie to watch and it teaches a few lessons of life that can be a keeper!

Sybil (1976)

I’ll admit that this show was quite intense as it has a really slow build up to the revelation.

Symptoms of DID
It was obvious that Sybil suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID] as she clearly displayed all the symptoms as stated in the DSM-IV-TR.

According to DSM-IV-TR, the following symptoms must be present to be diagnosed as suffering from DID:

A. The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self).

B. At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person’s behaviour.

C. Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

D. The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behaviour during alcohol intoxication) or a general medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures). Note: In children, the symptoms are not attributable to imaginary playmates or other fantasy play.

At the end of the movie, it was shown that Sybil had a total of 13 personality states and each of them is distinct from one another.

Throughout the movie, it was also displayed that the two personality states that often took over were Peggy and Vicki.

The movie also did show that, Sybil had episodes where she was unable to recall how she ended up in certain situations or how paintings that she don’t remember painting ended up in her room.

It was also shown that Sybil was not a drug abuser or was under any substance influence;
instead they show that Sybil was able to function like any other people and also had a job.

Thus, for symptoms wise, the movie was accurate 

in displaying them as it met all the requirements in the DSM-IV-TR.

Treatment of DID
Now moving on to the treatment that was used by the psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur to treat Sybil,
the movie showed that the main treatment used was hypnosis.
The main goal of doing so was to try and uncover Sybil's repressed memories of her abusive childhood
and to help her gain control of that event.

Although there is still no strong evidence that proves hypnosis is a necessary part for treating DID, it is however an effective way to gain access to these traumatic memories which will help in identifying the triggers/cues as well as helping the patient to regain control of it and see it as only a past memory which can no longer hurt them.

In the movie, we could see Dr. Wilbur help Sybil through hypnosis by helping her recall and visualize her surroundings and events that happened to her; especially when nearing the end of the movie, we could see Sybil's true childhood days as Dr. Wilbur helped her all the way to relive that particular traumatic experience and finally she was able to accept it as a memory that can no longer hurt her and finally the integration of all her personalities occurred.

The movie also showed subtle consequences when Dr. Wilbur was not careful when treating Sybil by being to harsh on her; Sybil reverted to her infant personality and Dr.Wilbur was at lost on how to revert her back to Sybil. This in a way shows that the person treating patients with DID should be always careful with their actions and be knowledgeable of what to do when their patients switch to another alter.

So for treatment wise, the movie was quite accurate in displaying how hypnotism in particular was used in treating Sybil as it brings out a lot of her repressed memories and different alters into awareness.

Conclusion 
I personally would not watch this movie again as it gets quite nerve-wrecking for me – especially when the whole truth about Sybil’s childhood experiences starts being revealed. But it is a good movie to watch if anyone is interested in getting a rough idea of what DID is all about and how to go about treating it.